Women in Art 278 Magazine October 2014 | Page 46

american artist Nancy Wait Watercolor “Seasons of Women” Watercolor on Paper, Size 30x40” (1987) I wanted to represent how we have viewed the female form in art through different periods of history, from ancient to modern, using a flowing pattern of curving lines. I began with Persephone on the upper left. She is a modern Persephone, self-involved, floating above the surface, ignorant and out of time with the legions of women who have gone before her. The figures in the main section of the painting were taken from art history books and mostly refer to primitive art or sculptures from Ancient Greece. The head on the lower right is based on the 4,000 year old Warka Mask from Uruk, also known as the Lady of Warka and the Sumarian Mona Lisa. I used a palette of earth colors except for the sky above, to signify this is art from the past, from different layers of time.